To make a documentary about Burning Man in which there will be footage shot during the event, I need, as the filmmaker, to get authorization to film during the event from the Burning Man Organisation, officially called the Black Rock City LLC.
The first step is to fill up the web form. I didn’t know anyone in the Burning Man Organisation. I simply said what my intent was. At the time I had made my submission, and still today, I didn’t know what I would do with the movie after production. I am still thinking that it will go through film festivals, but haven’t thought about it yet much more than that. After the web submission, I was contacted quickly by Ronjon (Jim Graham) who organises the Burning Beach Film Festival and works for the organisation as a volunteer. He told that the organisation agreed to my project and send me an Basic Use Agreement.
Once this is done, when you arrive on the playa you need to get a badge from Media Mecca (that’s the camp for the official Burning Man media relations) that allows you to film and allow everyone else on the playa to know that you are registered officially. The main reason for this procedure, says the Media Mecca is to avoid having anyone film people naked or any drug related activities.
Then you are free to film on the playa. And all this procedure is only to allow you to film on the playa. If you make a Burning Man related documentary, you don’t need any of this, other than the regular standard release forms for the participants in the documentary.
When you’re done with this, 2 more things:
- The Burning Man organisation, through the Basic Use Agreement, owns all your playa footage.
- And you will only be allowed to release this movie after the Burning Man organisation has reviewed your film and accepted the use you have done of your footage.
Another point in the contract says that you might need to pay an agreed flat fee upfront after you have signed the agreement and a certain % of any revenues obtained as a result of a licensed use of the movie produced.
Right now personally I have executed the agreement. I have not met any opposition from the Burning Man organisation, and actually Ronjon was helpful and easy to deal with. I know of another filmmaker which was not approved for reasons I don’t know. You can actually find a thread on ePlaya about this.
On the playa itself, I was always asking people if they were Ok with me filming them. It’s not always easy as you might need to shoot right away or you might be shy yourself, but really the interaction with people out there is generally very enjoyable and lots of people are happy to be filmed when you’ve told them what you were doing. In my case it was particularly easy as I will be printing DVDs of the raw footage and give it back to most of the people I have filmed. I have avoided having unnecessary naked people in the footage or stuff with drugs, as this is not really on the subject of my documentary.
In general, I’ve heard a lot people talking about the fact that there should just not be any cameras on the playa and it can be quite intrusive to their experience of Burning Man. There are lots of picture cameras and quite a bit of video cameras, so I understand the feeling that people have about this., but if you act with respect of the scenes and people you are filming, people will understand that you are also producing arts and documentation of an event they love, and you will probably generate great footage.
You should probably consult the following web pages:
If you have more information on this subject, have experience as a filmmaker at Burning Man or have questions, please share them here by replying to this post.
Thank you, madNOMAD.
